Studying Well and Performing Well: A Bayesian Analysis on Team and Individual Rowing Performance in Dual Career Athletes.

Juan Gavala-González,Francisco Javier Ponseti,Bruno Martins,Alexandre Garcia-Mas

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.583409

Juan Gavala-González, Francisco Javier Ponseti + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.583409

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Abstract

On many occasions, the maximum result of a team does not equate to the total maximum individual effort of each athlete (social loafing). Athletes often combine their sports life with an academic one (Dual Career), prioritizing one over the over in a difficult balancing act. The aim of this research is to examine the existence of social loafing in a group of novice university rowers and the differences that exist according to sex, academic performance, and the kind of sport previously practiced (individual or team). Therefore, a study was conducted from a probabilistic perspective using the Bayesian Network analysis methodology. The results confirm the existence of the Ringelmann effect or social loafing. The Bayesian analysis let us confirm that having a good student who practices a team sport, even in the individual rowing concept, increases the probability of obtaining greater performance (higher number of strokes and more power in each one). Therefore, when rowing partnerships are formed, the occurrence probability chain is quickly simplified, along with values of the top and bottom variables. Finally, the instantiations undertaken on the bottom variable that appears to be common in the two BNs, the watt input, enhance the results obtained. In short, rowers who have a better academic record are more involved in team testing, so this characteristic is defining when it comes to achieving better performance in team testing.

Highlights

Research on the psychological variables that may affect the performance of sports teams has a long tradition in sports psychology, with key concepts such as sports cohesion (Carron and Brawley, 2000) and cooperation (Garcia-Mas et al, 2006), in addition to recent developments in the synthesis of the currently existing different conceptual frameworks addressed to explain psychological dynamics of the team, e.g., coordination, identification, collective efficacy, or integration (GarciaMas et al, 2019)
The instantiations undertaken on the bottom variable that appears to be common in the two Bayesian Networks (BNs), the watt input, enhance the results obtained
In the individual rowing condition, the top variables, that is, those whose probability of occurrence have a cascade effect on the other variables, are the academic record – the higher the probability that the rower is a good student and practices a team sport, even in the individual rowing condition, the higher the probability will be of giving a better performance, which is quantifiable in the higher number of strokes and, above all, in the exertion of force in each one

Summary

Introduction

Research on the psychological variables that may affect the performance of sports teams has a long tradition in sports psychology, with key concepts such as sports cohesion (Carron and Brawley, 2000) and cooperation (Garcia-Mas et al, 2006), in addition to recent developments in the synthesis of the currently existing different conceptual frameworks addressed to explain psychological dynamics of the team, e.g., coordination, identification, collective efficacy, or integration (GarciaMas et al, 2019). Public evaluation or making public the contribution of each member to the total performance of the group, have been highlighted as key situational factors in inhibiting part of social loafing, supporting the idea that this phenomenon could be explained as a loss of motivation caused by a lower degree of recognition or evaluation(Kerr and Bruun, 1983; Harkins, 1987; René et al, 2006; Gavala González, 2010; Gavala-González, 2012; Hagen, 2015; Latané et al, 2019) This effect appears to significantly reduce when the participants feel that they belong to a cohesive group, are satisfied with their role in the team, see high levels of collective performance (Hogg and Vaughan, 2010; Høigaard et al, 2010), are top-level athletes (Jaenes et al, 2018), previously knew the teammates (Kerr and Bruun, 1983; Harkins, 1987) or regularly compete in teams (Czyzet al., 2016). In terms of motivation, when the group atmosphere is perceived as part of the task, social loafing reduces due to the existence of performance self-referencing rather than the social comparison inherent to an ego-centric atmosphere (Høigaard et al, 2013)

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